The second part of the technology story is the growth and accelerating maturity of robotics, artificial intelligence, sensors, and cognitive computing. Tools like Siri, Cortana, Watson, and Alexa can speak fluently, and the voice-actuated system Amazon Echo can sit in our kitchen and answer our questions during our daily life (in fact it now has its own app store). The new system Viv, developed by the inventors of Siri, is supposedly so smart it can write its own software and improve itself over time. Robots, which cost an average of $500,000 in 2008, cost an average of $22,000 today and real-time sensors that let robots polish equipment with eyes as good as ours now cost less than $2,000. So companies like Amazon can use robots like Kiva to select items, stack them, package them, and ship them with almost no human intervention. In China, the largest market for robots, the growth rate has been accelerated (China has only 36 robots per 10,000 manufacturing workers in China, whereas in Japan there are 315 robots per 10,000 workers, and in South Korea, 478. So China, a country with a slowing birthrate, is investing in robots at the rate of almost 100,000 per year. While in some cases robots eliminate jobs, our research shows that the predominant effect is what we call “augmented work.” Amazon’s use of robots made people more efficient by bringing the products to them, enabling them to focus on value add like gift-wrapping and completing the packing process for shipment. A new software engine from a company called Enilitics can read x-rays and has been proven 50% more effective at detecting cancer. Radiologists can process 2-3 times as many cases and are now far more accurate. Insurance companies like Geico now let customers take pictures of their auto claims and AI systems can identify the car model, recognize the damage, and estimate the amount of repair without human interaction. And of course we’ve all read the stories about self-driving cars. In April over a dozen self-driving trucks drove across Europe, threatening the 1.6 million truck drivers jobs—and of course impacting the demand for fast food, rest stops, and motels along the way.

Companies like John Deere have brought AI, sensors, and robotics together to automate farming: their machines can plow fields, carefully plant seedlings in exactly the right soil location, use infrared detection and weather forecasts to decide how much water and fertilizer to use, pick the plants when they’re ripened, and then decide how much mulch to add when the soil needs replenishing. The job of the farmer is to watch and monitor these machines. And the same is happening in white collar jobs. The field of RPA, or Robotic Process Automation, lets companies automate their back office financial processing, look at auto accident photos to assess claim value, read medical tests to identify problems, and automate almost every complicated ERP transaction humans previously undertaken by humans.

The findings 92 percent of companies believe that redesigning the organization is important, making it No. 1 in ranked importance among this year’s respondents. Companies are decentralizing authority, moving toward product- and customer-centric organizations, and forming dynamic networks of highly empowered teams that communicate and coordinate activities in unique and powerful ways. Three in four respondents report that they are either currently restructuring their organization or have recently completed the process.

Why is this? A new mode of organization—a “network of teams” with a high degree of empowerment, strong communication, and rapid information flow—is now sweeping business and governments around the world. The growth of the Millennial demographic, the diversity of global teams, and the need to innovate and work more closely with customers are driving a new organizational flexibility among high-performing companies. They are operating as a network of teams alongside traditional structures, with people moving from team to team rather than remaining in static formal configurations. Two major factors are driving change. Small teams can deliver results faster, engage people better, and stay closer to their mission. Second, the digital revolution helps teams stay aligned. Today, teams use web or mobile apps to share goals, keep up to date on customer interactions, communicate product quality or brand issues, and build a common culture.

What’s needed? The days of the top-down hierarchical organization are slowly coming to an end, but changing the organization chart is only a small part of the transition to the network of teams. Now, more than ever, is the time to challenge traditional organizational structures, empower teams, hold people accountable, and focus on building a culture of shared information, shared vision, and shared direction.

Key points to highlight: Over the last two years, we have discovered that responses to questions 1, 2, and 4 are the strongest drivers of increasing engagement and performance We have also discovered that if the responses to questions 4 and 8 decline over time, then there is a risk of voluntary attrition for the responder

The findings 92 percent of companies believe that redesigning the organization is important, making it No. 1 in ranked importance among this year’s respondents. Companies are decentralizing authority, moving toward product- and customer-centric organizations, and forming dynamic networks of highly empowered teams that communicate and coordinate activities in unique and powerful ways. Three in four respondents report that they are either currently restructuring their organization or have recently completed the process.

Why is this? A new mode of organization—a “network of teams” with a high degree of empowerment, strong communication, and rapid information flow—is now sweeping business and governments around the world. The growth of the Millennial demographic, the diversity of global teams, and the need to innovate and work more closely with customers are driving a new organizational flexibility among high-performing companies. They are operating as a network of teams alongside traditional structures, with people moving from team to team rather than remaining in static formal configurations. Two major factors are driving change. Small teams can deliver results faster, engage people better, and stay closer to their mission. Second, the digital revolution helps teams stay aligned. Today, teams use web or mobile apps to share goals, keep up to date on customer interactions, communicate product quality or brand issues, and build a common culture.

What’s needed? The days of the top-down hierarchical organization are slowly coming to an end, but changing the organization chart is only a small part of the transition to the network of teams. Now, more than ever, is the time to challenge traditional organizational structures, empower teams, hold people accountable, and focus on building a culture of shared information, shared vision, and shared direction.

(c) Bersin and Associates

As the crowd and gig-economy jobs proliferate, massive convergence of industries and transformation of traditional organizational structures and workflow processes will unfold. The companies that embrace this disruption and balance new exponential tools and talent models with their core mission and values will be the ones that gain the most and succeed in an era of disruption